CONTENTS
October 2017On the coverIt is March, and fresh snow blankets
the mountainside of the Singalila
National Park, West Bengal. In the
mellow early evening light, birds
forage and frolic attracting the
attentions of a clever and handsome
pair of hunters. They stay concealed
in the bushes, emerging just briefl y
into the open where they are framed
by a camera for eternity. As confi dent
ruling the canopy as they are the
ground, yellow-throated martens
are a forest-dwelling species and
undoubtedly one of the continent’s
most-charismatic small predators. No
less than tigers or leopards when it
comes to ferocity and fearlessness.
NEWS
8 World Scan Brazil dissolves Amazon
reserve, Snow Leopard Summit,
Environmental defenders at risk, Seizures
in Senegal and Vietnam.
9 India Scan New snake and earthworm
species discovered, Increased ESZ around
Cauvery Sanctuary, Karnataka tops
elephant census, Jan-Van Vikas Scheme in
tiger corridors.
10 Climate Watch China condemns lack
of climate action, End of the last ice age,
Fish to shrink in size? India is warming up.Photographer: Sourav Mondal/Entry-
SWPA
PHOTO FEATURE
12 The Sanctuary Wildlife Photography
Awards 2017 Choosing the Sanctuary
Wildlife Photographer of the year from
the thousands of entries is delightful, but
it’s not an easy job. Here is a smattering of
images submitted that may give readers a
fl avour of what is to come.PEOPLE
34 Meet Ganesh H. Shankar Poetry in
motion is what best describes fi ne-art
nature photographer Ganesh H. Shankar’s
images. He speaks to Lakshmy Raman
about the method behind the madness.
66 Through the Lens of Protectors
Who better to tell the stories of our
wildernesses than those who experience it
on a daily basis, suggests Nandini Velho,
while sketching portraits of two members
of the anti-poaching staff at the Pakke
Tiger Reserve who also moonlight as
wildlife fi lmmakers.
86 NGO Profi le One hundred kilometres
from Mumbai, in the green belt of Dahanu,
the Wildlife Conservation and Animal
Welfare Association works against the
odds to protect sea turtles, plus an array
of other wildlife, writes Anirudh Nair.REPORT
40 A Kingdom Restored Reiterating the
importance of securing habitats as Protected
Areas for wildlife, Sheren Shrestha shares
the success story behind the resurgence of
the Banke National Park in Nepal and the
subsequent revival of tiger numbers.SPECIES FOCUS
44 Great Indian Bustards – Extinction
Inevitable? A citizen science initiative
brings Vaishali Rawat in confrontation with
the stark conservation realities facing the
critically-endangered Great Indian Bustard.IN THE FIELD
50 Appa’s Mangroves Malaika Vaz
traces how a rigorous community eff ort
led by Appa Rao Allarpathi overcame the
onslaught of the unsustainable shrimp
industry to restore a fragile ecosystem in
Andhra Pradesh’s Krishna Wildlife Sanctuary.CAMPAIGN
54 Stop! Don’t Shoot Like That In
this Guide to Ethical Wildlife
Photography, founders of wildlife and
nature conservation portal Conservation
India Shekar Dattatri and Ramki
Sreenivasan urge photographers to band- Wildlife Photography in Transition
Involved in fostering a community of photographers and wildlife
conservationists, Kalyan Varma is a recipient of numerous awards including
the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2013 in the plants category, best
in Animal Behaviour in Poral el Planeta and Sanctuary’s Wildlife Photographer
of the Year 2005. In our cover story, he describes how what was once the
exclusive bastion of a few who loved to be out in the wilds has turned into
a diffi cult to control invasion of fragile wildernesses... and shares what he
believes is the future of wildlife photography in India.
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